Tears of joy flowed on Tuesday when the Richtersveld community got a court order restoring land taken from them seventy years ago. ”I am overwhelmed with joy. I can’t hold back my tears,” said community leader Willem Diergaardt. ”This is a big moment in the history of the Richtersveld.”
A settlement has been reached on the Richtersveld community’s troubled land-restitution deal, lawyers said on Monday. They said the settlement would be presented to Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Geldenhuys on Tuesday morning. ”We’ve settled,” said Rudolph Jansen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights.
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/ 20 September 2007
A group of Richtersveld residents is to challenge a settlement agreement with the government when the document goes before the Land Claims Court in Cape Town next week for ratification. The agreement followed a 10-year court battle by the Richtersvelders for the restoration of land taken by the state for diamonds mining.